VorFemme, it's funny that you mention that she should have been able to date when she'd arrived based on the emperor. I'm sure that most modern Americans would not be able to do that. At most they might know of the senate, Julius, and Augustus. I don't know past Augustus, because that's as far as we've gotten in the "Story of the World" CDs.

Yes, the heroine of "Household Gods" is pretty massively ignorant, outside of her profession and the necessary expertise for things in her daily life. She knows virtually nothing about Roman history -- just vaguely feels that life must have been better and more "natural" two thousand years ago. During her spell in the past, she learns in time that the current emperor is Marcus Aurelius -- she actually meets him, late in the book. Finding out the name of the current ruler is no help to her for "orientation", though: when she's transported to the past, she doesn't know Marcus Aurelius from Bertie Wooster.

I really hate that idea that life must have been better/more natural/etc "way back when". For all the issues our current day has, I'm really enamored with modern heating/cooling systems, modern plumbing, worldwide shipping so I can have veggies, fruits and meats out of season, and an educational system that allows women to be taught.

I really hate that idea that life must have been better/more natural/etc "way back when". For all the issues our current day has, I'm really enamored with modern heating/cooling systems, modern plumbing, worldwide shipping so I can have veggies, fruits and meats out of season, and an educational system that allows women to be taught.

POD My DAD's stories of Houston before air conditioning make my skin crawl. I grew up using the same slat beds he and Aunt (Twin beds I had both of them) had. My grandfather made them. He would tell me about untucking the foot of the bed because 1/2 way through the night he would switch foot to head to find a place not soaked with sweat. (I had new mattresses jut the frame was the same) They would also sneak off to swim in the bayous (shutter) because the pools were shut down in August due to the fear/believe that polio was being spread in the pools.

I really hate that idea that life must have been better/more natural/etc "way back when". For all the issues our current day has, I'm really enamored with modern heating/cooling systems, modern plumbing, worldwide shipping so I can have veggies, fruits and meats out of season, and an educational system that allows women to be taught.

I also agree. Everyone older than I am seemed to get nostalgic for the time when women's education was limited to reading, writing, basic arithmetic, home ec, and enough American history to be patriotic for one's children.... or the children of one's siblings if one's destiny was to be a spinster.

What is killing me now is that I see the education I received being laughed at by a coming generation that is getting all science, math, and tech at the expense of arts appreciation and foreign languages. A friend's daughter is a middle school English teacher whose students can't read cursive writing, which is also almost not being taught at all.

I had to tell DH that people in the Middle Ages would not have had potatoes to eat during the Lenten fast, because they originated in South America, not Ireland.

And Lent would not be a happy time to be a medieval peasant. Since they were not allowed to eat meat, milk, eggs, or dairy for those 40 days, they would have had to live on bread and whatever fruits and vegetables survived winter storage. That would be mainly onions and cabbage and maybe apples.

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~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~It's true. Money can't buy happiness. You have to turn it into books first. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I really hate that idea that life must have been better/more natural/etc "way back when". For all the issues our current day has, I'm really enamored with modern heating/cooling systems, modern plumbing, worldwide shipping so I can have veggies, fruits and meats out of season, and an educational system that allows women to be taught.

I really hate that idea that life must have been better/more natural/etc "way back when". For all the issues our current day has, I'm really enamored with modern heating/cooling systems, modern plumbing, worldwide shipping so I can have veggies, fruits and meats out of season, and an educational system that allows women to be taught.

Paper personal hygiene product. Just sayin'.

No one has yet said anything about modern medicine. I had an ailment on my teens that would have killed me if I had lived in my Grandparents' generation.

I really hate that idea that life must have been better/more natural/etc "way back when". For all the issues our current day has, I'm really enamored with modern heating/cooling systems, modern plumbing, worldwide shipping so I can have veggies, fruits and meats out of season, and an educational system that allows women to be taught.

Paper personal hygiene product. Just sayin'.

No one has yet said anything about modern medicine. I had an ailment on my teens that would have killed me if I had lived in my Grandparents' generation.

I am very happy to live now, if only for the medical advancements we've had. Last year I had a very bad ankle break; I broke multiple bones and required 2 surgeries plus lots of therapy. Imagine that 100+ yrs ago...I would've been "crippled" (as they'd have called it, wanting to be historically accurate) for life!

Yes, one of the professors in the anthropology college I am an undergrad in just gave birth. Lots of complications and it is very likely neither mom or baby would have survived without modern medicine.

Since I was born with asthma and have needed corrective lenses all my life, mine would have been a miserable one before modern medicine.

I really hate that idea that life must have been better/more natural/etc "way back when". For all the issues our current day has, I'm really enamored with modern heating/cooling systems, modern plumbing, worldwide shipping so I can have veggies, fruits and meats out of season, and an educational system that allows women to be taught.

Paper personal hygiene product. Just sayin'.

No one has yet said anything about modern medicine. I had an ailment on my teens that would have killed me if I had lived in my Grandparents' generation.

I am very happy to live now, if only for the medical advancements we've had. Last year I had a very bad ankle break; I broke multiple bones and required 2 surgeries plus lots of therapy. Imagine that 100+ yrs ago...I would've been "crippled" (as they'd have called it, wanting to be historically accurate) for life!

If it was a compound fracture, you would certainly have been crippled or dead. "Treatment" in those days usually meant amputation, and sterilization of the operating site and tools would have been hit or miss. Older doctors tended to think that antisepsis was sheer nonsense -- how could invisible bugs cause illness?!?

I would be dead of appendicitis at 24, leaving behind a toddler and an infant. DD1 would have died at 11, also appendicitis. Grandson2 would have been severely brain-damaged at birth, or stillborn. (Prolapsed umbilical cord = emergency C-section.) DH would have died at 49, of a widowmaker heart attack.

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~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~It's true. Money can't buy happiness. You have to turn it into books first. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I really hate that idea that life must have been better/more natural/etc "way back when". For all the issues our current day has, I'm really enamored with modern heating/cooling systems, modern plumbing, worldwide shipping so I can have veggies, fruits and meats out of season, and an educational system that allows women to be taught.

Yeah, my husband has studied a lot of history. Someone asked him what era he wanted to live in.

He said, "This one, when we have penicillin and my daughter can go to college and own property."

I really hate that idea that life must have been better/more natural/etc "way back when". For all the issues our current day has, I'm really enamored with modern heating/cooling systems, modern plumbing, worldwide shipping so I can have veggies, fruits and meats out of season, and an educational system that allows women to be taught.

It wasn't that long ago that out-of-season fruits and veggies just weren't available. I can remember when the winter fresh fruit selection was oranges, 2 or 3 kinds of apples (Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious, Macintosh) and bananas. Strawberries? In January? HAHAHA! They're in the frozen foods, lady.

And I'm with you on modern heating. I can remember how cold the house used to get overnight, and how we kids stayed in bed until Dad built the fires in the heating stoves. How much sheer WORK it was to cut and split and stack enough wood to heat the house all winter, because we kids had to help. How it was too hot close to the stove, but too cold at the other end of the room, so that you had to search for the "Goldilocks" point of the room where it was just right.

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~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~It's true. Money can't buy happiness. You have to turn it into books first. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Our Christmas stockings have always had an orange in the toe. Mainly because when my parents were children, the only time through the winter that oranges would be available is around Christmas time. They were a real treat.

Without modern medicine, I probably wouldn't be here, either. I suffered from a lot of tonsillitis related ear infections through my early childhood, with my tonsils being removed at age 7. And I had melanoma at age 31. Only excised, no radiation or chemo but there likely wouldn't have been the diagnotics around to determine that the mole needed to be removed.

My mother might not have survived childbirth in the past. She was in labor for 24 hours with one of us, 25 hours with the other in the 60's. No C-section that I'm aware of but certainly difficult for her.

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After cleaning out my Dad's house, I have this advice: If you haven't used it in a year, throw it out!!!!.